Panama City Beach from the balcony of some friends.

Thanks for checking out my blog. This should be a cool tool to provide a small plug into Bedford County and Middle Tennessee sports for our readership. Hope you enjoy, feel free to leave comments.

For the first time since moving back to the Volunteer State from Huntsville, Ala., in 2004, I was able to take something that resembled a vacation. Being the lone full-time employee in the T-G's sports department doesn't allow for much getaway time.

My time spent in Panama City Beach dealt with having to pay a Russian family $3.21 per 30 minutes to get online and pouring on tons of Ocean Potion after getting burnt the first day down. A veteran like myself should have known better. My footsies really got toasted.

It's great to be back and see that the local footballers are in full pads. I went out to Cascade on Tuesday afternoon to check things out.

I glanced around and saw a couple former players -- Zack Akers and Seth Carter -- and jumped for a second when I thought I saw the late Daniel Tucker. It was actually Anthony McPherron standing on the sidelines in street clothes.

I didn't tell anybody out there because Daniel's passing is and will always be tough for the community to swallow. Every time I put my car in gear without my seatbelt on, I think of him though.

If I ponder his passing long enough to be safer on the roads, I hope some of our youngsters do the same. Guess Daniel was a gift that just keeps on giving.